SHREDnews

Jess Grenier: Please state your name and what you do in the band.

Jay Vilardi: My name is Jay Vilardi and I play guitar in The Almost.

Jess Grenier: How did The Almost get started?

Jay Vilardi: We got started a few years ago when Aaron called me and told me what he was doing, what he wanted to do and what he wanted to sound like and all this after turning him down and then not and then joining. Then he just put in on me to hire dudes while he went on another tour. When he came back, there was basically a formed band and also when he came back, he had all these songs… and we didn’t meet up for awhile. Anyways, long story short, Aaron had the material and I formed the band. Over the years, it took probably about the first year till the band was solid like the people in the band then, and people in the band now with the exception of our drummer Joe… he’s awesome and should’ve been in the band from the beginning. So, pretty much like a normal band and except the some of the guys in the band are also in other bands. Not really a special story.

Jess Grenier: Is there any story behind the name The Almost?

Jay Vilardi: No, not really, I mean that I think that Aaron… I liked the name to be honest with you. I think it’s a good name, I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t taken and honestly, I didn’t think that I was going to be in another band with a good name because they were all taken. There’s no real story… it almost didn’t happen… or something stupid. I dunno, I didn’t name the band, Aaron did. I do like the band name a lot.

Jess Grenier: Did you always want to be a musician?

Jay Vilardi: Yeah, for as long as I can remember, I’ll probably always be a musician. You know, it’s just what I like to do, it’s my passion. I’ll probably always… always do it wither or not I’m performing. I probably will always perform one way or another. I got my guitar on my 12^th birthday and a drum set. Oh, it wasn’t my birthday it was Christmas and I was twelve.

Jess Grenier: Do you have any major musical influences?

Jay Vilardi: Yeah, no one in particular, I just listen to a lot of different music. I really, really draw a lot from the bands I listen to. I listen to anything from The Beatles to Slayer, I listen to those and a lot of punk and metal. Then now I listen to just about anything, like the Foo Fighters, anything like rock or ambient. I like that kind of stuff; I really like heavy music a lot. I draw influences from movies, if you can believe it. I’m a real big movie guy. I got to the movies and watch movies a lot.

Jess Grenier: Is there anyone who is the main songwriter in the band or is it a group process?

Jay Vilardi: It’s a group process now, like I said when we first started Aaron had all the material and we wrote a little together for the first record too, Me and Aaron. Now it’s completely collaborative and everybody has a lot to do with it. I think with the new stuff you completely hear that, I mean I get comments a lot the people hearing it and realizing a lot more going on, which is good even though people like the other songs and record, which I also still like a lot. It’s a difference when the whole band is there because, I mean I would never profess to be a better songwriter than anyone else in the band, so if I come to the band with a song, they add to it, it’s a lot better, vice versa.

Jess Grenier: You guys recently released your album Monster Monster, how was the recording process for that?

Jay Vilardi: Well, like I said it was collaborative, so everybody recorded and Aaron actually played all the drums and vocals. It was cool, we got to hire Nashville musicians cause we were in Nashville. So, if you noticed on the recorded in parts we have some country moments because that’s kinda what we like and we were able to hire the dudes who play on all the great records, having them come in and play on ours too and that was kinda neat. I think we kinda did that just because we knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. The guy who engineered our record is named Matt Carter in the band Emery. Emery is on Tooth & Nail Records and Aaron Sprinkle is a crazy good musician and an awesome producer. It was just musicians everywhere; it was the most collaborative situation I’ve ever been in as far as recording goes, that was a plus.

Jess Grenier: Do you have any favorite songs of the album?

Jay Vilardi: I like the title track a lot, and Hands, I like them all. Right now they’re still new to us you know, we haven’t had the record for very long. I’m still deciding, I don’t have any songs that I absolutely hate.

Jess Grenier: Are there any plans in the future for a music video for a song off Monster Monster?

Jay Vilardi: Well yeah, we recorded two music videos one put out called Lonely Wheel and the other is for the song Hands. We’re done with it but it is being tweaked a bit. That’ll be released soon, pretty soon we’re not exactly sure when, probably by the New Year or shortly after.

Jess Grenier: What is your favorite song to play live?

Jay Vilardi: I like playing Southern Weather a lot.

Jess Grenier: Do you have a favorite venue to play at?

Jay Vilardi: No, not really, I mean I like the State Theatre here in Saint Petersburg, Florida, it’s probably one of my favorite venues.

Jess Grenier: Does the band have any pre-show rituals?

Jay Vilardi: No, not generally, we usually say a quick prayer and go do our thing. We have vocal warm ups and stuff like that, nothing like we have to put a potato in a sock… and you know nothing like that.

Jess Grenier: Do you have and crazy tour stories?

Jay Vilardi: Do I have any crazy tour stories… Uh, I mean yeah I do, nothing super crazy just awkward, weird stuff that’s happened. Mostly when we tour it’s pretty positive so, I don’t have anything like completely nuts to tell you but yeah, tour is definitely not for everybody. I think being in a band and touring… it does something to people that they think they can tell you things from their lives that probably don’t tell anyone else that makes it interesting cause at the end of the day we’re just people too. Nothing really comes to mind as far as that goes, sorry it’s not really a good answer. It’s not like “yeah this one time, this cop beat me up,” I don’t have any of those stories.

Jess Grenier: If you could create a dream tour with four other bands, who would they be and why?

Jay Vilardi: Wow, four bands uh, well if it’s going to be because they’re all awesome, I’d probably do, I’d go on tour with probably Nirvana, At The Drive In, The Almost and the Foo Fighters. I know all of those things are impossible because the bands don’t exist and then Nirvana and Foo Fighters technically couldn’t… well maybe they could, I dunno, that’d probably be my dream line-up right now.

Jess Grenier: What’s something your fans might not know about you?

Jay Vilardi: Something they might not know about me, hmm, that I’m in a vintage scooter gang.

Jess Grenier: Really?

Jay Vilardi: Yeah, its not really a gang though, it’s more of a club. We don’t like beat people up or anything, we just ride ‘em.

Jess Grenier: I’m not going to lie, that’s pretty badass

Jay Vilardi: Yeah, its pretty cool… pretty legit.

Jess Grenier: Do you guys have any plans for the rest of ’09 or 2010 yet?

Jay Vilardi: ’09 no, we’re going to kick it at home and then 2010 we go to Australia for two to three weeks for the Soundwave Festival and then we’re going to do some touring in the spring. We’re trying it round it up now, we don’t know what bands we’re going out with, hopefully something cool will come our way and hopefully Warped Tour as well. We’re probably going to do some radio shows, you know those big radio shows that they do, usually we get on those and those are really fun for us to play, we look forward to that, if we get the opportunity to do it, we’ll do it. One way or another we’re going out in the spring after Australia, but Australia is 100% for sure happening.

Jess Grenier: Do you have any advice for bands that are just starting out?

Jay Vilardi: Just be yourself and be original. Do what you like and don’t do it for anyone else, other than yourself. For any other reason than the fact that you love to do it… you know I think as long as a band is doing that then the rest of it is the crap that we have to deal with on a day to day basis… the fine print. As long as you’re happy and rocking out to the best of your ability, doing exactly what you want to do, I mean that pretty much is the best advice I could give somebody.

Jess Grenier: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Jay Vilardi: Not that’s it. We have a new record out, thanks for listening to it and I hope that people will go pick it up or give it a listen. It’s called Monster Monster and you can literally get it everywhere. So, we hope you like it.